After the runaway success of my first book, “Pomona A to Z,” the mention of which caused many book lovers to run away, a second book was called for.

Some wanted me to write an A to Z look at their city, with Claremont and Ontario being the top suggestions. That’s not a bad idea, but that wasn’t going to be my next book. “Pomona A to Z” was made up of previously published columns, from 2004-05, and I haven’t written any A to Z columns since then. It’s possible I will someday, but having done one, ulp, 26-part series, the prospect of another gives me hives.

Collecting more previously published columns between two covers, though, seemed like a good idea. Thus, my second book, “Getting Started.” Subtitle: “The first four years of his Daily Bulletin column, 1997-2000.”

A sampling of actual comments made to me so far:

• “Only four years?”

• “What made you do another book?”

• “It sounds like it has motivational appeal.”

• “So it’s a history of the Daily Bulletin during that time?”

• “I understand it’s about your childhood.”

Clearly the reading public is excited. Confused, but excited.

“Pomona A to Z” has sold more than 800 copies, pretty good for a book with purely local appeal. And it’s been satisfying to have a book under my name, make a little money from it and boost Pomona’s reputation.

Producing a second book, and hopefully more in the years to come, meant going through all my past columns and figuring out what’s worth exhuming.

Newspapers are ephemeral, and most of my work exists only on microfilm at a couple of local libraries. The internet has just the last three or four years of my columns. The Bulletin’s internal online archive goes back only to 2002.

All that is added incentive to round up the better columns and put them in more permanent form. Otherwise, they may never be seen again.

Thankfully I’ve always clipped and saved copies of my writing and that’s what we relied on for “Getting Started.” Two years ago I hauled out my first columns and started in on them.

I read a few at a time, stopping when the gag reflex kicked in.

In those days, I was a reporter who was allowed to write an occasional column, then was given a weekly slot, then a twice-weekly slot, all while still juggling reporting duties. It wasn’t until 2001 that I was made a full-time columnist.

Having penned more than 2,000 columns to date, I had forgotten many of these early ones. Encountering them again was a little like reading the work of a stranger but one with a familiar outlook and sense of humor.

Some of them were really bad. Many were simply OK or very dated. Not only were they published during Bill Clinton’s second term, a fair number were about Bill Clinton’s second term. Other topics no one cares about now: Y2K, the Olympics and Ted Koppel.

A fair number, though, were a pleasant surprise. I wrote about jury duty in Chino, lucha libre wrestling in Pomona, traffic calming in Ontario, park planning in Rancho Cucamonga and a salmonella scare in Claremont.

I waited by the side of the freeway for a tow truck, served on a jury for a personal injury civil suit, talked by phone with Rowdy Roddy Piper, met Mort Sahl and mocked Lee Baca’s abandoned combover.

I speculated what a Rolling Stones concert might be like in the distant year of 2017, paid tribute to “Casablanca” and “Peanuts,” and analyzed the potential business efficiencies in merging Thanksgiving and Christmas into one streamlined holiday.

Faced with some 280 columns over those four years, I rejected three of every four and put the rest in the book. You can be the judge whether I was still too lenient.

In short, “Getting Started” sums up the years when I was new here and finding my way. Hence the title, and the cover showing me rolling my luggage down a dusty road.

Want to meet me and buy my book directly? I’d like that. For one thing, there’s more money in it for me. (Only use Amazon as your last resort, people.) But also, in a profession that involves typing on a screen and flinging the results out into the world, it’s gratifying to meet readers face to face. It’s a reminder that people still read newspapers.

I’ll be selling and signing “Getting Started,” not to mention “Pomona A to Z,” at these events:

• Feb. 4: A launch party from 6 to 9 p.m. at Sonja Stump Photography, 135 W. First St. in Claremont, as part of the First Saturday Art Walk.

• Feb. 11: A double-header in downtown Pomona: 3 to 5 p.m. at Mi Cafecito, 101 S. Main St., and 6 to 8 p.m. at Magic Door Books, 155 W. Second St., as part of the Second Saturday Art Walk.

Since 1997, David Allen has been taking up valuable newsprint and pixels at the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, where he is a columnist and blogger (insidesocal.com/davidallen). Among his specialties: city council meetings, arts and culture, people, places, local history, dining and a log in a field that resembled the Loch Ness monster. The Illinois native has spent his newspaper career in California, starting in 1987 at the Santa Rosa News-Herald and continuing at the Rohnert Park-Cotati Clarion, Petaluma Argus-Courier and Victor Valley Daily Press. A resident of Claremont who roots for the St. Louis Cardinals and knows far too much about Marvel Comics, the Kinks and Frank Zappa's Inland Valley years, he is the author of two collections of columns: 'Pomona A to Z' and 'Getting Started.'